KEY POINTS:
When his 11-year relationship ended, Brent Mervyn Sowry strangled to death the puppy he had given his partner on Valentine's Day.
The police say he strangled the puppy in front of the three children aged 14, 8, and 6 who were at the house in Cheviot.
Sowry denies the children were present in the room, but he pleaded guilty in Christchurch District Court today to killing an animal in a manner that caused it to suffer unreasonable and unnecessary pain or distress.
He also admitted punching his partner and breaching the protection order she had taken out against him. The protection order protected two of the children and the charge cited his psychological abuse by strangling the dog in front of them.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Brent Register said Sowry -- a 38-year-old unemployed man with half his face tattooed -- was drinking heavily on August 26 when he became annoyed with the behaviour of the puppy and strangled it in front of the children.
He had punched the woman, then held her down by the throat and punched her again.
Questioned by the police, he said his partner no longer wanted the puppy.
Defence counsel Lee Lee Heah said Sowry had actually killed the dog without the children present, and it had been buried in the presence of the entire family.
He had killed it because when the relationship ended, his partner had told him to take the puppy he had given her, but he could not take it because he was hitchhiking.
She said he wanted to be sentenced immediately, to serve his time in prison "and leave all of this behind him".
The police told the court that police had been called to eight incidents involving the family in recent years and five of the incidents had involved the children, and almost all involved violence.
Judge Philip Moran said Sowry had a considerable criminal history but had been out of serious trouble for some years. But he said it was a serious matter that he had performed his act of cruelty on the dog in front of children named in the protection order.
He jailed Sowry for a total of 18 months. Sowry told Judge Moran that he did not want home detention to be considered.
- NZPA
